Top 3 Lessons My Farmer Boss Taught me
Mice Extermination Tips
This post is a continuation of the one I wrote about my farmer boss that gave me the tips on how to extermiante mice myself. You can read it here.
When I worked on a farm I asked my boss for some tips on how to handle my mouse problem. Turns out he had a lot of experience with mice extermination. Here are the top 3 tips he gave me.
Make a safe zone
I had a big old house so it was really hard to find all the little entrance ways the mice were using to get in. My boss told me to make my room into a safe zone by making sure there was absolutely no way for the mice to get in when the door was closed. I sealed all the spaces in the walls and made sure the vents were sealed tight and covered with mesh. Next I raised all my furniture (beds and shelves) off the ground slightly so that I can quickly glance around to see if anything was there. And last I put traps around the perimeter of my room. Since it was a small room it wasn’t hard to get done. This lesson was more for piece of mind than anything else. I started to sleep much better knowing that I had created this safe zone and my anxiety decreased ten fold. This of course didn’t exterminate the mice but it got me on the right path.
Don’t set the traps at first
Once you’re down to the last few mice you’ll find that they’re almost impossible to catch. They can handle anything you throw at them, it’s crazy. My boss told me to not set the traps and leave peanut butter on the trigger so that they learn to eat off of it with out fear. After a few days of eating from the trigger, I just set the traps and sure enough this one worked like a charm. To increase your chances I found that putting a tiny bowl of water beside the traps helps to encourage them. I ended up exterminating 3 mice in total and I thought there was only one.
Get a cat
If you’re not allergic then I highly recommend this. We actually had 2 cats that did an amazing job at keeping the mice away. Their smell alone had the mice running in fear. Keep in mind that mice are hard to catch in a big house even for cats. This is due to the variety of objects they can hide behind. I watched many times mice escape my cats claws, mainly because he liked to play with it before he ate it so the mice easily got away. I felt the safest when my cat slept in my room in my safe zone because I knew I’d have my own mouse guard protecting the perimeter. I’d like to think of cats as the natural way of exterminating mice. However this solution may not be for everyone due to policy rules in condos and apartment buildings.
Reader Comments (6)
I found some very useful tips to eradicate the mice in our house. I cannot forget those hectic days of running behind mice. I am going to follow the tips provided here. Thanks for Sharing.
Thanks for reading Lisa! I understand the pain oh so well. Let me know how it goes.
Wow! The tips mentioned in the article are simply out of the box and each tip has logic behind it. Apart from old tricks and traps, I find this natural way, a cat protecting the perimeter as the most interesting one! It reminds me our childhood’s most popular cartoon -show, “Tom & Jerry”. Undoubtedly, the first one can be considered as the most affective one for them, living in a big house, while setting traps are common tricks.
These tips are really helpful. My neighbor had a same problem, and I shared this blog. He judiciously followed the second trick, and within a couple of days he himself has rescued his home from these silly animals. It really works! Thanks a lot and request you to post more relevant blogs here.
I followed the third tip of getting a cat. My cat is a lazy fellow always watches mice wandering about. So, I followed using the trap with the water bowl behind and it worked. thanks for sharing your knowledge.
You have got a nice Boss to guide you. Very well explained. I missed the mice many times when I tried to kill it. It escapes in a minute. I now got an idea how I should plan.